Project 'IT' Tons of info about this mysterious device! Does 'IT' stand for Individual Transportation?posted by stevridie (17 comments total)

I love the idea of a hydrogen-powered scooter, but it isn't all that practical here in snow-bound Ottawa. Palle Jensen's RUF system seems, in many ways, more revolutionary than what I have heard of IT so far: "From home, individuals will get into their electric vehicles, which have had their batteries recharged overnight. They'll drive a short distance to a RUF rail station, where they'll tell the computer their destination. The guideway will then take over control of the vehicles, hooking them up with other RUFs."posted by tranquileye at 6:49 AM on March 11, 2001

You know what? I don't give a flying fuck (or, rolling fuck, as the case may be...) what "It" is anymore. I'm just sick to death of having to read about it here over and over and over and over and over and over and...posted by m.polo at 7:16 AM on March 11, 2001

Who says "IT" is an acronym, anyway? I always thought it was in all caps because some fluff "reporter" decided to give it some emphasis.posted by Potsy at 7:18 AM on March 11, 2001

This is actually a repost of this article that someone just cut & pasted from the original inside.com link to a geocities account. DoublePostGuy, eat your heart out.posted by zempf at 8:31 AM on March 11, 2001

Since the thread's already a toss-off, I'm going to veer it completely off-rail.

Ahem.

tranquileye: That rail system was featured on a show I watched a snippet of - the monorail snippet - last night. I'm guessing from the link it was CNN. It looked like an interesting concept, one I that seems reasonably feasible, unlike most of the auto alternatives I always see on those various Sci-Tech shows.

And I hadn't even thought of how great such a device would work all year round through Canadian and northern US years. That's an excellent point.posted by cCranium at 9:27 AM on March 11, 2001

What's *TOTALLY* annoying about the Patent Office (besides just it's existence in the first place) is that all the stupid drawings are in some random TIF format which doesn't render in my browser (and I'm betting 90% of the browsers out there)!posted by muppetboy at 10:01 AM on March 11, 2001

Well, no one has a job to zip to anyway so it's useless.posted by poodle at 11:10 AM on March 11, 2001

This post is all noise, no signal.posted by stevis at 1:37 PM on March 11, 2001

Muppetboy: The images at the patent site(at least the one I've visited in the past) are at an extremely high DPI setting, for some bizarre reason. They should have info for going somewhere to download a small pluging that will handle them.posted by Su at 1:53 PM on March 11, 2001

Not to bring this discussion back to the RUF system, but I'm surprised that there haven't been more comparisons of RUF to Aramis, the failed attempt of the French government in the 70s and 80s to create a robotic, splittable subway system.

For a self-consciously po-mo account of Aramis, read science studies scholar Bruno Latour's book "Aramis, Or Love of Technology."posted by mckimg at 5:00 PM on March 11, 2001

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